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Sunday, May 17, 2015

Arky Vaughan: Baseball's Forgotten Star

Shortstop Arky Vaughan
is a Hall-of-Fame baseball player yet remains one of the least remembered and under-appreciated players in the history of the game. Described by New York Times columnist Red Smith as “baseball's
most superbly forgotten man,” his
relative absence from the collective baseball memory can be attributed to a
number of things, including his untimely death at the age of 40 in a extinct volcano
crater lake.

Born in Clifty, Arkansas in 1912, Floyd Ellis Vaughan (He
later changed his name to Joseph Floyd after converting to Catholicism) was
raised in California and grew up to be a tremendously talented athlete. Among
his schoolmates was one Richard Milhous Nixon. Although Vaughan only briefly
lived in the Razorback State, his nickname stuck throughout his life.

After a stand-out prep career at Fullerton High School and
for organized community leagues, the shortstop was signed by the Pittsburgh
Pirates in the winter of 1931 after his neighbor passed along information about
the talented youngster to a scout.

The left-handed hitting Vaughan played his first
professional season in 1931 with the Wichita Aviators, hitting .338 with 21
home runs. That was more than enough to earn him a ticket to play for the
Pirates the following year. Still raw in different areas of the game,
especially in the field, he was put under the tutelage of former Pittsburgh
shortstop great Honus Wagner,
who worked almost exclusively with him—with outstanding results.

During a 14-year career with the Pirates and the Brooklyn
Dodgers (1932-1948), Vaughan hit a combined .318 with 96 home runs and 2,103
base hits. He was also a terrific defender, and his 72.9 career WAR is 83rd
best of all time. He was out of baseball from 1944 through 1946 because of a
decision to retire early but came back for his two final seasons.

His other achievements include:

He hit at least .300 in all 10 of his seasons with the
Pirates.

He walked 937 times during his career while striking out on just
276 occasions.

In 1941, he became the first player to hit two home runs in
an All Star game when he took Sid Hudson
and Eddie
Smith deep.

He made nine All-Star teams.

His 136 career OPS+ is better than many baseball greats,
including George Brett (135), Joe Morgan (132), Roberto Clemente (130) and Carl
Yastrzemski (130).

Despite his quiet demeanor, he joined many of his teammates
in portraying themselves in the 1943 Red Skelton film, Whistling in Brooklyn.

His three year “retirement” came at the end of the 1943 season
with the Dodgers after standing up to manager Leo Durocher
for berating teammate Bobo Newsome.

Although there were undoubtedly other reasons why he decided to stay home, the
confrontation was certainly an aberration from his day-to-day persona. Perhaps it
was for the best that he decided to return in 1947, which was the year Durocher
was suspended for his association with gamblers.

Vaughan’s re-entry to baseball had a positive impact on at
least one person. Years later, Jackie
Robinson would tell
a New York Times reporter "He
was one fellow who went out of his way to be nice to me when I was a rookie. I
needed it." The man who broke baseball’s color barrier faced many
challenges that first season, so it was important to have the support of such a
respected veteran.

After he retired, Vaughan never received more than 29
percent of the votes from the writer’s Hall of Fame ballots and ultimately had
to wait until 1985 when he was finally enshrined via the Veteran’s Committee,
thus confirming his relative anonymity in the modern day. That point was truly
driven home when the Hall released commemorative envelopes to celebrate his
impending induction with his last name spelled “Vaughn.” Even when he was being
appreciated he was under-appreciated.

Sadly, he never lived to see his induction or how his
baseball legacy was shaped following his playing days. In 1952, just four years
after his final major league season, he was dead from a strange accident at the
age of 40.

After leaving baseball, he returned to California to live
with his wife and four children on their sheep ranch in Eagleville. He was also
an avid fisherman, and on August 30, 1952 he and his friend, Bill, took a boat
out on nearby Lost Lake. It wasn’t your standard lake, as the water actually
sat in the crater of a long-extinct volcano.

In the midst of their fishing, the boat capsized. The two
men struggled to make it to shore. Just moments from hitting land they both succumbed
in 20-foot deep water.

Initially, there were conflicting reports that the accident
had been caused by a sudden storm or Vaughan had gotten entangled in fishing
gear. However, a full account of the actual events was reported by Bill
McCurdie in a January 13, 1986 issue
of the Los Angeles Times:

On Aug. 30, 1952, Bill
Wimer, Arky's friend and neighbor, visited the Vaughan ranch to talk Arky into
going fishing. Arky declined, saying he had too much work to do that day, but
Wimer convinced him to change his mind, saying the work would be there when he
returned.

Arky asked his wife,
Margaret, who had grown to love the outdoors nearly as much as her husband, if
she wanted to join them, but she declined. Had she gone, one relative said,
they would have fished from the shore of the lake instead of going out in the
boat…

When Arky and his
companion found a place where the trout were biting, Wimer, a logger and a
hulking man of more than 200 pounds, stood in the boat to cast. Verne Wheeler,
an elderly man who witnessed the incident from the shore of Lost Lake, told
authorities of how the boat overturned, sending both men into the chilly water.

Arky was a good
swimmer but Wimer apparently was not. Both men headed toward the shore but
Wimer began to struggle long before he got there. Once he realized his plight,
Wimer began to panic. Arky tried to help his companion, but, outweighed by more
than 50 pounds, was unsuccessful. About 25 feet from shore, both men went under
and never resurfaced. Their bodies were recovered the next day.

The Fullerton Daily
News Tribune, Vaughan’s hometown newspaper, eulogized their quiet hero with
an observation that he would likely see his record fade more quickly than most
of his peers. “He lacked only one thing—a colorful personality. Those who knew
him best believe he would have been one of the game's greatest heroes had he
been endowed with the sparkling personality that made lesser players great.”

His younger brother Bob remembered him similarly in later
years. “It's like I said when Arky was inducted to the Orange County Sports
Hall of Fame (in 1982), if Arky would have been there, he would have said,
'Thank You.' And that would have been it. But he'd have meant it."

In 1999, Pittsburgh Pirates fans were polled on
their opinion of the greatest shortstop in team history. Of the more than
14,000 votes cast, Wagner was the justifiably clear-cut winner with over 11,000
tallies. Dick Groat and Jay Bell trailed with just under 1,000 votes a piece.
Sadly, Vaughan barely registered on the ballot with 264 votes, affirming his
status as baseball’s forgotten star.

Arky Vaughan was a baseball gem whose accomplishments have
sadly faded like old photographs. He may have had a quiet demeanor and met an
early end but none of that should detract from what he did on the field.
Hopefully, his legacy will experience a comeback, much like the final years of
his playing career, and he will be forever remembered in the way he should have
been from the start.

5 comments:

Hi Andrew... as a long-time Pirates fan, and a student of baseball history, I have always liked Arky Vaughan... all the stuff I had read about him as a youngster... no one ever mentioned his real name... in fact, it was his odd sounding 'name' of Arky that first drew me to read a biography of his sports accomplishments back in the 70s here in Toronto. I enjoy your biographies on the old-timers... you make them seem less like gods, and more like real people. I particularly like the fact that Vaughan's logger buddy was described as a hulking man of around 200lbs. I'm 215 and hardly a big guy by today's standards... the fact that you implied Arky was 50 lbs lighter - and thus around 150lbs is a tell-all... these guys were a lot smaller back in the day. Have you done anything on the Dean Bros. of the Gashouse Gang? My two favorite nicknames right there alongside Arky... though, like I said, I didn't know that was a nickname... to this very day.Thanks!

I doubt you care but, I am actually a relative which is what brought me here. I am Hannah Vaughan and Arky was my grandpa's uncle. My grandpa enjoys showing me pictures in our family tree book and I find it intriguing.